Song of Songs 8:5 // Liturgy for Homesickness (Douglas Kaine McKelvey) // The Warden and the Wolf King (Andrew Peterson) // Desdichado (Dorothy Sayers) // Colossians 3:1-4 // Adorning the Dark (Andrew Peterson) // The Green Ember (S.D. Smith) // Dandelion Fire (N.D. Wilson) // The Gods Return to Earth (C.S. Lewis) // Till We Have Faces (C.S. Lewis)
@thatfriendlyanon said in her tags a while back that "we really are each just quote quilts ourselves". So today, a day where I don't feel very much like myself, I decided to make a quote quilt to remind myself who I am and who I'm called to be. Feel free to do the same. All of these are from books I adore (either on my bookshelves or in my Kindle library) and it was so good for me to revisit them.
sorry to always be This Person in the fandom but that was actually a thing!! I can’t speak as much to medieval social history, but I know that in the European Renaissance and early modern periods the “age of majority” was often twenty (which numerically makes more sense than 18 because it’s rounder). Only at that point was a person considered an adult who was able to make their own decisions. And, yeah... that is a Mood.
december 18, 2020: winter in Redmont (after Skandia)
(okay so it’s more like hurt/comfort than straight fluff but it’s me so what can you expect? Halt is a good dad. inspired by the ten freaking inches of snow I got last night and all the lovely time my family is spending together.)
Things change after Skandia. Everything changes, actually. On the one hand, Will is older, tougher, wiser and less naïve, more skilled, more resilient. He works hard and Halt is proud to be his mentor. On the other hand, in some ways Will is fragile now. He has flashbacks. His hands shake sometimes, and Halt knows it’s his responsibility to bridge the gap between these two equally true parts of his apprentice and care for both. Especially during the winter months. The cold is hard on Will, and Halt desperately hates watching his apprentice suffer. So he does what he can to help.
Sometimes Halt almost overworks him. A busy mind doesn’t have time for bad memories, he reasons. He bombards Will with exercises, with new drills, with strategy and geography lessons. They track animals in the snow and Halt maintains a near-constant stream of questions, charging Will to remain unflustered and answer each accurately and well. He tries not to overdo it. A few times, he does and they argue. But sometimes he knows that’s what Will needs. Errands the two of them go into town for, visits to the castle, long lessons on history and politics and which rules of etiquette Rangers hold to and how to obey them. A constant occupation. He knows by Will’s grateful smiles that it helps.
But that’s not always how things go. Sometimes Will needs to rest, and Halt gives him that, too. Sometimes they end their days early so Will can curl up with a cup of coffee and ask Halt questions about Gilan’s apprenticeship. Halt is a good storyteller (though this is a secret kept far under wraps). He teaches Will Hibernian, too, and tells him some of the vaguer stories from his childhood. Will knows not to pry. But Halt finds that he enjoys sharing that part of himself with his young apprentice. Will is a good listener (and quickly becoming proficient in Halt’s native tongue, which makes Halt feel a way he can’t quite put into words). And sometimes, Halt gives Will the day off so he can visit Alyss and Jenny and George in the castle. He knows that’s good for him, too. It’s good for Will to have friends, and it’s good that he has such faithful ones.
Will gets sick more easily now. That makes sense. Halt doesn’t fully know what kinds of things Will was exposed to during his time in the Yard, but he knows the boy was overworked and mistreated to the extreme—not to mention that hellish drug and whatever long-term consequences it wrought. Will’s body pays the price of all that now. But Halt is attentive when Will is sick. He covers him in blankets, he makes soup and tea, he monitors Will’s temperature and soothes him in his fever dreams. Will is never cold, and Halt is loathe to leave his apprentices when they’re ill (he was the same with Gilan) so Will is rarely alone. Halt isn’t sure it helps. But a few times he hears Will mumble half-aware fragments of no and don’t go and he hopes his being there makes a difference.
There are some things that are constant. Halt always keeps a fire going. The cabin has a surplus of blankets, one of which is often wrapped around Will’s shoulders (and sometimes it was Halt who put it there). The cold is unavoidable—water needs to be fetched, and snow needs to be shoveled, and dinner needs to be caught, and Halt’s job is to prepare Will to be a Ranger so those things can’t just go away. But he always does those things with Will. (Even the chores—but only in the winter.) There is always warm coffee when they return from the cold. The two of them make dinner together every night, and they prepare warm, savory things—stews and warm vegetables and fresh bread, and Halt watches carefully at the table to make sure Will eats enough. Some evenings they write letters together—Halt writes to Crowley and Gilan, Will to Horace and Cassandra—or they read quietly by the fire. It all has a warm, comfortable, almost familial sense to it, and Halt is gruff by nature but he leans into the feeling. He knows Will does, too.
The ghosts of Skandia never really leave. They’re always present and unspoken (though Will and Halt talk sometimes, and Will knows he has an open invitation any time he wants to bring it up). Halt sits with Will in the aftermath of nightmares and panic attacks brought on by seemingly insignificant happenings. But he makes sure to keep the fire on at home, to dress Will in a warm cloak and gloves and sturdy boots. He talks to Will and asks him questions when they go out, so Will doesn’t get lost in remembering, so that the present feels different from the past. Will tells him it usually does.
Every winter is easier than the one before it.
Will graduates and moves away. Seacliff is a warm fief, which Halt is grateful for—the winters are mild, and there’s hardly ever snow. It’s never deep. But then Will goes off on a mission to Norgate, which. It makes Halt nervous. He knows Will is fully qualified (and more capable than some of the more veteran members of the Corps), but, still. It’s the first winter Halt hasn’t been there for. He’ll never admit it but he worries.
When Will comes back to Redmont, things are different than they were during his apprentice days. The cabin is all his, since Halt and Pauline live in the castle. But he and Halt settle into some familiar winter rhythms. Halt and Pauline invite Will over for dinner, or the reverse, more nights than not. Halt and Will cook together often. Halt still visits the cabin when he hears that Will is sick (although these days, he often finds Alyss there as well). Halt and Will do a decent amount of their work together. Halt makes a point to ask Will questions in Hibernian rather than Araluan, and since Will is very nearly fluent by now they converse about work and life the way a younger Halt always imagined he might with his own son.
Winter will always be difficult for Will. Halt notices that even as an adult his eyes seem haunted when he looks outside after a big snowfall, or that a splash from freezing water makes him jolt upright. But it’s easier now than it was. And there’s a certain closeness that comes on winter nights—nights when Halt and Will are writing reports in front of the cabin fireplace, when Halt will wrap a blanket around Will’s shoulders out of habit and fill his mug when it runs empty, and when Will will look up with grateful eyes and a gentle tease about becoming a mother hen in his old age. Their patterns are familiar and comfortable.
Halt will always hate watching Will suffer. But there’s a certain peace that comes alongside the cold now. Will has soft memories along with the bad ones. It doesn’t make the bad ones go away, but it makes them more easily bearable. It feels like home even when things are hard.
Hi, friends! I love RA and I love found family (and I’m trying to get myself to write more even while things are busy), so I’m going to start posting little fluffy tidbits on Fridays! I’ll try to make it every Friday, but no promises. If you’d like to participate and send in prompts or headcanons that would be an absolute blast!! (I’d prefer if they were gen as opposed to romantic, though, at least for my blog. Sorry to be a drag.) So anyway:
december 4, 2020: Let Will And Gilan Hug
Look, here’s the thing: Gilan and Will are close friends. From the minute he meets Will, Gilan likes him—he’s polite and witty and brave as hell, what’s not to like? But he also feels remarkably protective over him. (Gilan wonders if he was so small and unsure of himself when he first started as Halt’s apprentice.) And Will, for his part, deeply admires Gilan. Gilan has the skills and experience of a fully fledged Ranger with none of the mystery. He’s not intimidating the way many of the other Rangers are. And he’s younger, more open, has an easier time relating to Will than someone as old as their mentor. Therefore, Gilan and Will quickly become good friends. Gilan mentors Will in more of a casual growing-up way, and Will asks Gilan the kinds of questions he feels weird asking Halt. They fall easily into the empty older brother-younger brother spaces of each other’s lives.
Though they have some good interactions in the books (book 7!!!!), I still feel like we were robbed of Gilan content, especially as it relates to his friendship with Will. So here is my list of canon moments in which Gilan and Will definitely hugged:
After the Kalkara. Gilan eventually catches up to the rest of them and finds Will on watch over three injured men and a pile of ashes, and it’s obvious from his first glimpse that Will is exhausted to his very marrow. But he’s safe. So are Halt and Arald and Rodney, because Will saved them all. Gilan is all kinds of relieved and grateful and full of admiration for the young apprentice, and he has questions. But when he looks at Will, he can’t bring himself to say any of them. Because Will looks desperate. Gilan imagines being fifteen and in his place—imagines the kind of reassurance and comfort he would crave in the aftermath of something so horrific—except that there is no one here to give it. So Gilan steps in: Hushes Will, tells him he’s done well, then slowly, carefully, steps forward and wraps his arms around him, giving him time to step back or pull away. Will doesn’t. He holds on tightly like Gilan is an anchor, and Gilan finds himself needing to fill that role as much as Will needs it to be filled.
When Will and Halt return after Skandia. Gilan’s spent a year full of guilt and self-loathing over leaving Will and Evanlyn behind in Celtica (never mind that he had no other choice). When he first sees Will home again he feels like he can’t breathe. He’s alive. He’s far too skinny and his eyes are darker, more solemn than Gilan remembers, but he smiles when he sees Gilan and Gilan is so relieved. Gilan steps forward and hugs him so hard he literally picks Will up off the ground. Will laughs, and Gilan decides that things will be okay again.
Before Will left to find Tug in book 7. You’re telling me Halt and Gilan were not absolutely terrified to see him off, even though Gilan advocated for it?? Gilan knows Will has to do this. Doesn’t change the fact that he holds Will like it’s the last time he’ll see him alive. He knows it might be.
After that final battle in book 7. Gilan was so sure that Will was dead in the desert somewhere. Moreover, he was sure that he himself was going to die—but worse, that he was going to watch all of his friends die as well. It was worse than anything Gilan could have imagined. And then Will—alive!—swooped in and saved them all. Again. Gilan marches straight up to him after things have calmed down and squeezes him so tight Will can barely breathe, and Will is so relieved that he just holds on and hugs him back for a long minute.
When Will gets his silver oakleaf. Gilan’s thought a lot about their conversation on the journey to Arrida—how Will worries that he’s not ready, that he’s not enough. Well, Gilan thinks, he’s proved himself wrong. Everyone knows how capable and brilliant Will is, and maybe, just maybe, Gilan hopes, Will will start to see that as well. So Will is given his silver, earned many times over. And Gilan can’t help himself from sweeping Will into his arms at the first opportunity, whispering well done in his ear and hoping his firm embrace says all the words he can’t.
When they first meet up on the way to the Gathering, like they do in book 8. Enough of this “firm handshake across their horses” nonsense. Will and Gilan dismount and hug each other like men. Rangers lead lives of uncertainty and danger, and there’s no telling what will happen tomorrow or who might be killed between now and then. The Corps as a whole doesn’t bother with affecting a distance from each other. Neither do Gilan and Will.
At Will’s wedding. Gilan also cries. Enough said.
And here are a few non-canon moments that definitely happened in which Gilan and Will also definitely hugged:
After Will passes his first exams as an apprentice. By my reasoning, Will doesn’t actually take exams until his third year—he gets his oakleaf after the Kalkara in book 1, in lieu of an official evaluation, and I’m assuming he misses the second one with Skandia and all. So, year three. And Will was so nervous beforehand, even though Halt and Gilan both knew that he would do just fine. When Will gets his results back, Gilan tugs him into his side and messes with his hair and says “I told you so, you ridiculous boy.” (And Will laughs and pretends to hate it, but Gilan and Halt both know he doesn’t at all.)
Gilan visits Redmont for Christmas once. He’s brought a present for Will—of course he has—but he forgot to take into account the fact that Will isn’t exactly used to a proper Christmas with real gifts. Will’s eyes get massive when Gilan hands him the wrapped package. He actually stutters in his awkward rush of gratitude, and as soon as he opens it he flings himself straight into Gilan’s arms. (He does the same to Halt later on.)
Gilan also visits once for Will’s birthday, when he turns eighteen, and is delighted to receive more or less the same reaction.
The two of them go on another mission together when Will’s in his fourth year. He’s much more grown-up now, much closer to graduating, and it feels like they’re on almost equal footing. Gilan very much enjoys their constant back-and-forth. And the mission goes fine—except for the part where Gilan almost dies. He’s weaponless, backed up against a stone wall with a smuggler’s axe in front of him, and the only thing that saves him is Will’s quick thinking and throwing knife. At this point, it’s another day on the job. But straightaway Will runs at Gilan and almost knocks the wind out of him with how hard he hugs him. Gilan can only imagine the what-ifs spinning through Will’s head—and he’s unimaginably grateful for his younger friend, who is the only reason he’s still alive—so he just says thank you, I’m okay, well done over and over until Will stops shaking and feels safe enough to let go.
Gilan only sees Will drunk twice. Once is after Alyss’s death. But one time is when Will’s about twenty-two and visiting Horace and Evanlyn in Araluen, where Gilan also happens to be for a conference with Crowley. He runs into the three younger people in a local tavern. They’re dressed down in civilian clothes, blending in with the locals, and they’re all on a scale between tipsy (Horace) and flat-drunk (Cassandra). Will is somewhere in the middle—lucid enough to recognize Gilan when he enters the tavern, but affected enough to stumble on his way over to him so that he can throw his arms around him and tell Gilan how much he missed him and what a good brother he is. Gilan’s halfway between laughing and tearing up. But he figures the three of them much deserve to have their night of anonymity and fun like any other young people would. So he hangs around, makes sure the three of them get back to the castle safely and subtly, writes out a good recipe for hangover coffee that he leaves on Will’s bedside table, and doesn’t tell Halt or Crowley. Some things, he figures, they don’t have to know.
I’m so mad that we were robbed of Gilan holding Will’s firstborn. Will! Would! Have! Been! A! Great! Dad! And Gilan would have been Baby’s uncle! Gilan would have held Baby and cried and told Will how beautiful they are and how proud he is of him!! :(
This concept has gripped me and will not let me go: Imagine Will using the mandola to help work through his emotions after Skandia. All the words are too hard to say, so he puts his fingers to the strings and he plays. Lets it all out. He still plays Graybeard Halt and happy songs and Halt still grumbles at him, but he'd never dream of teasing Will about this, not ever- Just. Will using music to help the healing process.
UGH YES I AM HERE FOR THIS
He isn't able to play for a little while. His hands still shake too much the first couple weeks after he's home (he had kinda pushed everything down to deal with the Temujai and now he has to deal with it) so he doesn't bother. Once he's a little more steady, he picks up his instrument to try. He's put of practice and he stops almost immediately, but after that, he gets back into the practicing routine. That's when he starts playing sadder songs, and harsher songs, and sometimes just random chord progressions that fit the mood he's trying to express
Halt: whoops? WHOOPS?? we are far past a ‘whoops’ situation. 'whoops’ is but a distant speck in the rearview mirror. we are firmly in 'oh fuck’ territory and i expect you to ACT like it.
“Ew you’re an adult why are you in fandom”
Kid, if being mocked for fandom shit wasn’t enough to stop me when I was an actual 15 year old, hearing it from a 15 year old when I’m 30 is genuinely hilarious
It is kind of amusing when teenagers think their highschool peer pressure shit is going to work on adults. Like, lol you have no power here fetus. My mortgage is a bigger emotional threat to me than you are.
For the requests: what about a job switch? Like, Pauline and Alyss dress up as Rangers; Halt and Will as Couriers; Horace as Princess and Cassandra as knight; Gilan as cook and Jenny also as Ranger
@jedi-ranger @aseikh and a bunch of anons had a similar request, so:
(tap for higher res)
so i drew them not like they’re wearing the clothes of the other, but sorta like wearing the clothes from the other’s career for a day. i was gonna do more dresses, but then i wanted to attempt a male courier outfit concept and so i just kept that theme up.
Will Treaty from John Flanagan’s brilliant series Ranger’s Apprentice! I adore this series to pieces, like, wow. Anyway, adult Will because he’s such a cutie.
AHH DO YOU HEAR THAT?? ITS THE SOUND OF ME CRYING BECAUSE YOU UPDATED CARRY ON WAYWARD SONS!!!! 😭😭😭😭 BLESS YOUR SOUL I AM SO EXCITED YOU ARE RETURNING TO THAT FIC YOU HAVE NO IDEAAAAA THANK YOU🙌🏻😭❤️
Oh my, anon, I am SO SORRY that I missed this! I’m sure it’s been in my inbox for some time. But genuinely, this made my heart go !!!!!!!!!!!! So thank you so much!! I am so, so glad people still enjoy it & want to read it. And thank you for taking the time to send this (even if it was several weeks ago) because this was so so wonderful & encouraging to read!
*or, why RA isn’t historical fiction and your fanfiction doesn’t have to be either
Oh geez, where do I start? (I know: I’ll start with a read more link.)
Disclaimer: I don’t have a phD; I’m just a tired history undergrad. I’m also not going to cite sources because this isn’t a dissertation and most of this info is general knowledge anyway. Also, most of this is general, broad-brush painting. I wrote this in one go at 1 am so I’m sure there are minor factual errors somewhere. Focusing on Europe because once we add in North Africa and Japan that is way too much for me rn.
Here’s the thing: RA is vaguely historical, right? Medieval? Wrong. By almost every indication, wrong. Let’s start with one of JF’s maps. A quick google search for “map of araluen and surrounding countries” will reveal a map dated at 643 Common Era. If that date corresponds with our own dating system Common Era, here’s what was going on in the world at that time:
The Roman Empire has collapsed pretty recently, in 476 (let’s not get technical here). Europe is a Mess. We’re in the very early Middle Ages here, specifically the part sometimes called the Dark Ages because they were so Messy.
Most people were illiterate—very few written records of this time (this in particular is inconsistent with RA)
The Germans ruled most of the continent after breaking apart the Roman Empire (the Byzantines and Anglo-Saxons are just kinda off doing their things). A lot of cultural things of value were lost here pretty much just because nobody was around to care about them. The Germans had culture, it just wasn’t preserved the way the Romans had strived to.
What did survive was the Christian Church. It was the only real institution around for, like, a long time. The Benedictines set up camp during this time but really took root a little later. What culture we do have is because of them (yay!) because they kept and copied so many manuscripts.
Actually, society as a whole was this weird “Christendom” synthesis made up of aspects of the Roman Empire, the Germanic warrior tribes, and the Church (this is like making a sandwich with peanut butter, pasta alfredo, and sour patch kids)
Charlemagne was the best-known ruler of this period. He united a massive swath of territory and small states via conquering. He’s known for his reform attempts, mostly cultural: Encouraging education, the arts, literacy, etc. (Most of this didn’t work, but he’s the only one who tried so we give him points for effort!) But his land didn’t last long after his death. Nobody could hold it all together after his son died. He is SO far off the mark from what any rulers in RA are like (more on this later)
Good grief, actual knights........yikes. Talk about something that’s different from the RA portrayal. They did practice chivalry, which was, like, learning how to use napkins and stuff (I wish that was a joke)
The feudal system! It sucked! (This doesn’t exist at all in the RA series, replaced by a fief system more similar to an early modern kingdom setup synthesized with the modern U.S.)
Life probably sucked a lot if you lived in this era tbh
None of our modern nations existed: Spain, France, Germany, England—none of them. So the fact that JF has created counterparts for them is itself anachronistic—not to mention the fact that national borders seem pretty well established in RA. In reality there weren’t really medieval nations; there were geographical areas where different peoples lived (there are the Anglo-Saxons, there are the Franks, there are the Slavs, there are the Lombards, etc.)
So that’s the Dark Ages. The aesthetic of RA fits more into the High Middle Ages, around 1000 C.E. Here’s what was going on then:
Kings did a better job of hanging onto their territories! (But RA’s monarchy is still hella anachronistic—more on that later.)
Araluen is clearly a type of England. The Norman conquest happens around here, though, which would complicate relationships among Araluen/Skandia/Gallica (and certainly there’s no depicted equivalent in RA). So this is more or less ignored
There’s more culture during this time period: The Romanesque period (and the Gothic, a little later ~1200′s). Finally, stained-glass cathedrals: something worth living for
Crusades! (That’s one thing RA never touches on: European-Christian and Muslim relationships. Though the Tualghi or however-that’s-spelled in book 7 are called “the forgotten of God”, which could connote Allah? But I said I wasn’t going to talk about North Africa in this so shutting up now)
The Papacy holy smokes *John Mulaney voice* “now, we don’t have time to unpack ALL of that!” But actually, the Papacy was by far and away the most powerful institution during this period. Kings were secondary. And the majority of popes were poor reflections of actual Christian teaching (that is, hopelessly corrupt).
Pretty much any learning or reading is taking place at monasteries or academic institutions (this was SUCH A SMALL minority of people. like. SO FEW people could read. Again, this is very different from RA). This is the era of Aquinas, Abelard, & co.
There’s actually a writer named Peter Abelard (like Halt’s horse!) who writes a book called “the story of my life’s misfortunes” or something like that and it’s absolutely HILARIOUS omg this dude has an epic victim complex
Magna Carta in 1215, like 600 years after RA is supposed to take place. This puts the faintest of limits on a king’s absolute power and is one of the foundations for our modern ideas of natural rights (which bleed into RA a ton)
And here’s a list of facets of RA that aren’t even medieval at all, but are actually early modern (for the early modern period, think early Renaissance-French Revolution):
Battles. Yep. That was because for a battle to happen, each army had to know where the other army was. That was nearly impossible for a long time! There’s Charles Martel and the Battle of Tours at the beginning of the medieval era, and then Hastings in 1066 is pretty much the biggest battle of the medieval period, I think, until Agincourt in *quick google search* 1415. Most of medieval warfare was long, drawn-out sieges in which the besieged city usually starved to death before being conquered.
Consequently, tactical warfare was mostly siege warfare, and there was pretty much one way to do it. Rangers would have been obsolete except by way of intelligence gathering
Most of the weaponry mentioned, at least as it’s mentioned in the books. Longbows, for example, weren’t realized as a weapon the way depicted in the books (I think) until the early modern period, in England (though they were used for hunting for a long time before that).
Travel. Not that nobody traveled in the medieval period, but the casual way the characters saddle up with a map, go somewhere using the map, and then return? Yeah, that’s WAY ahead of the game.
Actually. while we’re on the topic of maps, premodern cartography is fascinating and I won’t go into it here but IF there had been maps in a truly medieval RA, they would have looked a lot different and been significantly less effective. Maps were based more on ideology than physical reality for a long time.
Social organization. MUCH more early modern than medieval.
Monarchy [as depicted in the RA books]. During most of the medieval period, kings were almost constantly moving around their territories because that was the only way they could maintain their power and quell desires of uprising. It wasn’t until the early modern period that they started building capitol cities—and they did so as a way to broadcast how effectively they had consolidated their power. “Oh, look at me, I’m a powerful monarch—I don’t have to be constantly on the move to maintain order.” Duncan is clearly in the style of what were called the “New Monarchs”, who stayed put in their capitol’s castles. (The early modern period is also when we see the first real European queens.) I really cannot overemphasize what a massive break this was from the medieval monarchy.
The state! the New Monarchs and all their consolidated power also paved the way for the rise of the nation-state. So we get defined borders! (and lots and lots of wars over them, since we can have Real Battles now) Araluen is depicted as one of these nation-states, but within a medieval context.
Music (as we think of it). Everything was monophonic until the 16th/17th centuries and it was nothing like our current understanding of notes, and 90% of it was church music. (But medieval monks were the first to come up with a notation system which is pretty cool so we owe them big time)
Beyond the early modern era, a whole swath of things in RA are actually incredibly modern (think French Revolution-present).
General attitude and understanding of self. The early modern worldview was characterized by order and structure of everything from cosmology to daily life, and most of it centered somehow back to God. Inequality and station were part of the natural order and you understood yourself within that. There were limited options for life trajectory. (Yes, the Enlightenment happens and there’s humanism in the Renaissance, but I’m thinking about your average European). The RA characters have an identity that we understand today because it’s much more similar to the ones we have.
Gender attitudes. This one is pretty self-explanatory. It’s still pretty old-fashioned in the books to maintain some semblance of the medieval aesthetic, but the Diplomatic Service would NEVER have existed in the early modern period. like. NEVER
Government! Oh, RA is just FULL of modern ideas about government. Our ideas for what makes a good and fair ruler, what makes an effective administration, how to geographically and logistically organize a country into smaller defined, locally administered units that report back to a central executive and act as one whole—all this stuff is newer. (Araluen’s fief system is interestingly based on the United States, but that’s a separate post.)
Religion. All the main characters are portrayed as nonreligious—Halt is even skeptical of organized religion. Folks, that was probably illegal, in both medieval and early modern periods (depending on when/where). One thing RA does get right here is mentioning of old religions/local gods, which were often worshipped in a pagan synthesis with Christianity, but that was usually on the dl.
I almost forgot: RIGHTS! This is a totally modern concept (yes, there was Locke in 1689 and the U.S. Revolution in 1776, but by and large our understanding of human rights is heavily modern). We have a concept today of how people should be treated that is very different from the early modern one. Our idea of what constitutes a good ruler (like Duncan, or Horace and Cass) and what makes a bad one (like Ferris) is directly influenced by this!
An interesting side note: RA is actually a little more accurate when it comes to medieval race and racial relations. It wasn’t nearly as much of a weighty, charged issue as it is now. Most of the circumstances that brought about our modern problems with racism didn’t really exist yet. (e.g. slavery was highly an issue of nationality/conquered people groups) Also, people always wanted to trade, so anything that facilitated exchange was a welcome development. Things change A LOT in 1492. *please note that all these are generalities; there are always exceptions. (The exception to ALL of this of course is the Christian-Muslim issue, although I would personally argue that was based on religion and long-standing religious prejudice rather than race.)
Some conclusions:
The RA chronology puts it at the beginning of the Dark Ages
The RA aesthetic is High Middle Ages
Most actual aspects of RA worldbuilding are early modern
The overall mentality of RA is very modern, even arguably postmodern at times
Ultimately, here’s the thing: RA wasn’t written as historical fiction, and that’s good! It’s fun to pick apart the inaccuracies—and there are so many more than this!—but we don’t have to necessarily hold that against JF. And honestly, when we read the books, we appreciate most of these decisions. They make the books more fun (in areas where history was for sure not), more exciting (especially with the addition of battles and strong monarchy), and less offensive (for example, a medieval portrayal of gender would be simply unacceptable). Most importantly, all this makes it so that we can identify with the characters! We have so little in common with a medieval soldier or an early modern farmer—but we do see ourselves in the RA cast because in a way they are us (just projected backward in time). In a strange way, all these inaccuracies greatly contribute to the story and our enjoyment of it.
So this means two main things. One, RA is riddled with more specific anachronisms (like Alyss wearing leggings in book 5—very unlikely—or Jenny’s restaurant having a coolroom in book 8). But since RA isn’t meant to be historical fiction, we don’t need to hold it to any standard of historicity. It’s more a question of what you’re willing to continue to suspend your disbelief for. And two, RA fanfiction also does not have to be historical! At all! Do all the research you want for your AU, but like. no pressure. You are hereby released from all pressure to research. Is that aspect of castle life you want to include “historically medieval”? I don’t know. If it’s pleasant, probably not—but it doesn’t matter! Use it if you like it! We love when writing is about having fun!
(If you read this far, I genuinely am in awe of you and also you have my whole heart. Also please let me know if I missed anything or made any factual errors; I’d love to correct those.)
This one’s by @rangerthursday11, @banannawrites, and gerbilfriend on ao3!
Halt has a cat!!!
He found it one day, and he didn’t mean to adopt it, really, but it just kept showing up and at some point it just became his. There’s a little cat bed, made out of an old cloak, and a chipped water bowl.
Now, it could be named Pritchard, but also, consider this: the cat is named Cat, short for Caitlyn.
The cat likes to wrap itself around Halt’s neck, sit in his lap, and plop itself down on his paperwork. Halt likes to use this as an excuse- “Sorry my paperwork was late, Cat was sitting on it.” Or even: “I don’t care, Crowley, I am not moving the cat.”
The cat sleeps in his bed with him, and Crowley sees Halt let it bat his oakleaf around. Halt adamantly says that did Not happen, No Sir. The cat has a rivalry with Crowley. Cat brings Halt mice sometimes, and he’s very proud of his little hunter.
Will makes a little double-scabbard collar for it. Halt adores his cat, and anyone who makes fun of him for it can die. He gives Cat a Hibernian nickname, a term of endearment he used to use for Caitlyn.
Will’s absolutely confused by it, and Halt has to teach him the pronunciation of the word.
After that, Will asks to learn more Hibernian, and he expects to be denied, but Halt patiently teaches him. Halt’s honestly touched by the fact that Will asked.
Eventually, Will realizes that the name Halt keeps calling him is ‘son’ in Hibernian. (The first time this happens is after the boar hunt in book one- it’s an accident, and Halt tries to stop it at first, but eventually gives up.)
Will asks someone else who knows Hibernian (Pauline) to teach him the word ‘father.’
He, one day, casually calls Halt that, and Halt responds without really noticing.
Fifteen minutes later, he realizes, spitting out his beloved coffee.
When Halt and Will are feeling especially soft, that’s how they address each other. It becomes a Thing.
Sometimes, Will gets sick, and Halt will sing old Hibernian lullabies to him. Hibernian becomes a comfort language to him- when Will’s upset, Halt will talk softly to him in Hibernian.
Maybe apprentice Will gets hurt sometime. It’s not fatal, but it’s pretty bad.
He’s in the Redmont infirmary and Halt’s sitting next to him while he sleeps, just quietly talking in Hibernian, brushing the hair out of his face and smoothing the pain lines away.
Arald and Rodney see them, get just a tiny glimpse of the trust between them.
Halt and Will speak Hibernian around Redmont, with Will pointing at things and Halt teaching him how to say them. The other Craftmasters are awed, except for Pauline, who probably knows Hibernian. (She definitely knows that Halt and Will refer to each other as father and son.)
Anyways, that’s that on that! A little fliuffy one as an apology for the Jesper angst from last time.
Please! I try not to follow younger people on Tumblr to begin with, but please know that if I followed your page not knowing your age because I didn’t see it and you don’t want me follow you I will absolutely respect that!
